


Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Forgotten by Reality

by rokolinkon



Category: Pokemon Mystery Dungeon
Genre: CW: alcohol, Gen, characters and relationships sections will be updated as the story progresses, cw: LOTS of swearing, cw: blood
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-21
Updated: 2020-08-19
Packaged: 2021-03-03 18:47:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24830302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rokolinkon/pseuds/rokolinkon
Summary: An Eevee and a Zorua fall in love.Oh, and also they have to save the world or something.
Relationships: Gwen & Brille, Melody/Caesar
Kudos: 3





	1. Prologue - Washed Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A Zorua finds it in his heart to pull an injured Pokémon to shelter. He has no idea what he's getting himself into.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> content warning: description of injury and blood
> 
> this is my first time literally ever using this site in my life, so bear with me! i'm still trying to figure out how to use it and all. but! this is the prologue to pmd: fbr. it's a written adaptation of a soon-to-start pmd tabletop rpg, so updates may be sporadic! i'm sort of using it as a way to get back into writing, since i used to do a lot of that a few years ago, but some stuff happened in my life and i lost my touch. i'm not expecting for this to get popular, or for anyone to even read it. i'm posting it entirely for myself! if you happen to be here, hello! thanks for taking the time out of your day to check out what i've done! i can't think of anything else to say, except that i will try to follow the plot of the actual game as closely as possible. hopefully this note only shows up on the prologue and not the whole thing because i have no idea what i'm doing! yes, it's short, but this is just the prologue. 'kay?
> 
> (i avoided using a rating because i don't know how it'll go down yet. the game hasn't started yet, of course! there will likely be more talk of injury and blood, plus lots of swearing, so i felt like that might warrant an M rating, but i suppose i'll play it safe and just use content warnings at the beginning of every chapter. also, i didn't know whether the description of injury and blood warranted a "gore" tag, but based on the description of that tag being as extreme as it is, i didn't feel like it needed it, but again, this is my first time using the site.....)

The evening sun loomed low on the horizon. The calm water of the beach gently swished on and off the sand, splashing quietly against the rocks of the nearby cave. Bubbles from the resident Krabby drifted through the sky, reflecting brilliantly the warm hues of the sunset. The nearby town bustled with life as rescuers, explorers, and adventurers alike returned back to town from their day's work.

South of the town, along the edge of the beach, walked a lone Zorua. He held his eyes down at the sand, paying no mind to the sights around. He made a conscious effort to step lightly, avoiding leaving heavy prints in the sand. Slowly, he shuffled along, making his way who-cares-where. He sighed, looked up, and turned to sit on the sand by the shore, and caught a figure out of the corner of his eye. He jumped, did a double-take, and quickly lurched back, shrieking. He shivered in place, bracing himself. He opened one eye. Before him was another Pokémon, lying on the beach, seemingly unconscious. The Zorua crept up closer to her. She was covered in various injuries, cuts, and scuffs all over her body. She had a large gash on her head that was bleeding quite badly, and it had begun to pool up under her. Her brown fur was matted and frazzled, and her poofy tail was sprawled out behind her.

The Zorua frantically looked around. What was he supposed to do about this?! What if she was dead?! He couldn't call the Guild--they'd think he did it! He surveyed the area once more and stepped closer. Making sure there was no one else around, he reached down and grabbed the Pokémon by the scruff of her neck in his mouth. His fangs dug into her neck and punctured the skin. He could taste blood. Now he actually _had_ injured her...

He dragged her along the beach through the sand, stopping occasionally to rest his jaw and spit out blood. To avoid being spotted by the residents of the nearby town, he took a rather roundabout path. He made his way, with the unknown Pokémon, to the cliff at the far west end of town. Built into the side of it was a hidden room, into which he pulled his captive and placed her on one of the hay beds. He collapsed onto the floor next to her, spitting out her blood and catching his breath. He checked again to make sure she was alive, and pilfered some money from the storage by the entrance before heading out. He held his head down, making his way to the local Kecleon Shop.

The younger brother took notice of him. "Welcome to the Kecleon Shop! How can I help you?"  
"Just a few Oran Berries. Like, one or two. Maybe two. And, uhm... m- maybe a Reviver Seed."  
"Going out adventuring, are we? Always good to be prepared, yes. In total, that comes to 900 Poké."  
The Zorua hopped up and sat the money on the counter, pushing it forward. "Yeah, ehehh... Gotta be... prepared..."  
Kecleon slid the items forward. "Yes, well, thank you for your purchase. I've got other customers to help, so run along, please."  
"Yeah, um-- you're, uh, right... Sorry, uhm, Kecleon sir..." He grabbed his merchandise and ran off, heading back to the cliff...


	2. Amnesia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An Eevee wakes up with no memories. A Zorua finds it in his heart to help her. Neither of them know what they're getting themselves into.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey there, gamers! this is funny: the game is over! i'll talk more about it in the end-chapter notes. anyway, no specific content warnings for this chapter--note that i am attempting to keep it as close to the source material (the tabletop rpg) as closely as possible! including random filler and side quests. because why not, huh?
> 
> also i have no idea when i'm supposed to truncate for chapter boundaries. so i'll, uh, eyeball it. feel my way through as i get it going. whenever i think it Feels Right y'know

The Eevee woke up. Her whole body ached. Her head was throbbing; the left side of it felt like it got stabbed 20 times in a row… with an axe. Her vision was blurry and dark and her hearing was muffled, but even if she could see, she wouldn’t be able to see out of one eye considering it was almost entirely covered in blood. An itch made its way down the side of her neck as a drop of blood dripped down. A light breeze grazed over her. An attempt to remember how she got here yielded nothing… Could she even remember anything at all? Something about her body didn’t feel _quite_ right, apart from the pain in her everything. Couldn’t put her finger on it, though… She found herself lying on a hay bed in a room, with one wall completely missing--almost as if the room was built into the side of a cliff. It was quiet… The only sounds she could hear were the muffled sounds of ocean waves on the beach below and the wind.

Her ear twitched. Outside, up the stairs, she heard footsteps. With the remaining strength she could muster, she spoke. “Wha--... Wh--.. Who’s there?..”

The figure stepping down the stairs frantically jumped and scrambled, dropping what he was holding. “Waah! You’re awake!” He ran over, picked up one of the items he dropped, and brought it over to the Eevee, sitting it down in front of her. “Take it easy… I dunno how long you’ve been out, so just take it easy. You know you shouldn’t be up moving around with whatever happened to you. You’re bleeding pretty bad. What happened out there, anyway?”

“Uh-- Who are you? I just woke up, and I have no clue how I got here…”

The Zorua jumped again. “Ack! Uhm, I’m Brille!” He cocked his head. “That’s a lot to drop on me at once… You got _here_ because I dragged you here… I found you unconscious washed up on the beach, and figured I’d drag you to shelter…” Brille nudged the item closer. “Here, actually. I got you an Oran Berry. And a Reviver Seed… You know, just in case…”

The Eevee gave him a smile. “Oh, uhm, thank you!” She struggled to reach forward and grab it, and finished it off quickly. Her wounds began healing.

“Alright, so… Do you have a name?”

She thought for a moment. “I, uh… don’t… remember my name.”

“Well, that’s… problematic. Should I, uh, just call you Eevee? Or do you want to come up with a new one?”

“I’m not quite sure… I guess I’ll go with Gwen? It sounds kinda familiar.”

“Well, alright then, Gwen. That’s cute. It suits you. If you don’t remember your name… do you at least remember what you were doing before you ended up on the beach?”

“Umm… nope. Not one bit. All I remember is waking up here.”

“We haven’t got much to work with, huh?.. Wh--” Brille was cut off by footsteps outside. “Oh, no! I think whoever lives here is coming back home!”

Gwen turned to him. “W-- Wait… This isn’t your house?”

“Ehm… No… Uh-- That doesn’t matter right now! We’ve, uh… Uh… I don’t know what to do!” He shuffled back and forth in place, waiting for Gwen to come up with a plan.

Gwen looked around. “Umm-- Is there somewhere we can hide in here?!”

“We could try to hide behind the barrels by the stairs, and make a break for it when they come in!”

“Sounds like a plan to me.”

The two sprinted over behind the barrels, Gwen leaving a trail of blood behind her on the way. The Pokémon coming home slid past the barrels, not noticing the home intruders. The two sprinted out from behind the barrels and Gwen stumbled up the stairs. Brille ran over behind a nearby tree and waved Gwen over.

He spoke, panting. “Are you alright? Sounded like you took a few, uh, leaps, there…”

Gwen gave a half-assed chuckle. “I’ve had worse.”

“Whether or not you have, you should really take it easy. We still don’t know how you ended up like that.” Brille put on a smile. “But, anyway, welcome to Treasure Town! Or, uh, welcome back. I dunno if you’ve been here before.”

Gwen giggled. “Thank you either way!” She stepped out from behind the tree to get a good look down the path of the town. The sun was setting behind her, and the town seemed to be just picking up. Must’ve been evening. “I guess I need to find a place to stay for the night.”

Brille stepped out behind her. “Well, it’s not _that_ late yet.” He thought for a moment. “I guess… Well, my initial plan when I found you was to drag you back there until you woke up, and…” He sighed. “I left the Reviver Seed I bought on the floor in there. Ugh, well, I was gonna use that to revive you, and take you to the Guild. They might have some bandages for your head.”

Gwen shrugged. “I guess that’s where we shall go! Just lead the way, and I’ll follow.”

Brille carefully nodded. He gestured for Gwen to follow, and led her around the town, not along the main path, but along a path around behind all the shops and out-of-the-way of the main square. They hopped over the river, and stopped in front of a large staircase leading up north.

Gwen, looking up the stairs, gasped. “Oh! I should’ve said this sooner--thank you for taking care of me!”

Brille jumped, pulling his gaze from the staircase. “Oh, uh, yeah… Really all I did was break into someone’s house drag you in there and steal their money to buy a few items…”

“Hey, you still saved me.”

“I guess so, but I wouldn’t put too much weight on it… I’m not one folks usually like to trust.”

“Well, you can’t judge a book by its cover.”

“I wish it was just the cover.” Brille turned his gaze back up, changing the subject. “Ugh, let’s just get up these stairs.” He started walking up, without waiting for a response.

Gwen pouted, following him. They made it to the top, seeing the small tent of the Guild’s entrance. The two approached the grate. Brille looked at it uneasily.

“What’s the matter?”

“Well, this is the Guild. Wigglytuff’s Guild. They’re, um… Like, a guild of explorers. They’re really famous for being super good at what they do, I guess, but the Guildmaster doesn’t like me too much…”

“Oh, uhh… Do you want to wait out here, then? I don’t want to start anything…”

“No, I should come too. You’re all injured and have amnesia. Plus, I don’t really know what to do on my own, anyway… Here, I’m a Zorua. I shouldn’t need to worry about it.” He hopped into the air and, in a flash of purple, shape-shifted into a Pikachu with his Illusion ability. “This should work.”

“Wait what--”

“I guess with amnesia you wouldn’t know that I could do that… but it’s fine. Either way, the guild has this security system.” He gestured to the grate. “You have to stand on that before you go in, or they consider you an intruder. And, believe me, you do _not_ want to be considered an intruder.” He paused. “So, uh… I guess I’ll go first. So you know how to do it.” He timidly stepped onto the grate, and jumped.

“Pokémon detected! Pokémon detected!”

“Ack!”

“Whose footprint? Whose footprint?”

Brille shivered.

“The footprint is Zorua’s! The footprint is Zorua’s!”

Brille stepped off the grate, transforming back into a Zorua. “Well, that didn’t work…”

A more distant voice spoke from under the grate. “...You may ENTER!”

Everyone paused.

“There’s someone else with you! You there, get on the GRATE!”

Gwen confusedly stepped onto the grate.

“Pokémon detected! Pokémon detected! Whose footprint? Whose footprint?”

“Uhh, mine?”

“The footprint is Eevee’s! The footprint is Eevee’s!”

“...You may ENTER!”

The two stepped into the Guild, with Brille leading the way. “This ladder’ll take us down into the actual guild. The tent is just for show. We should get to the bottom floor to find Chatot to ask for some bandages for your head.”

They made their way down, and Brille gestured to a Pokémon to their left. “That blue guy over there is him.” He started over and gestured for Gwen to follow.

As the two walked over, they caught the end of Chatot’s conversation with the guildmaster. “Oh, yes, I once quoted a Vine in front of Loudred and he lives in constant fear of my supposed knowledge of the internet, and no one believes him when he tells them.”

Gwen spoke up. “Uhm, excuse me, are you the guildmaster?”

Chatot jumped and flapped his wings wildly. “What in the name of Palkia-- What are you _doing_ sneaking up on me like that?! Goodness me. No, I am not the guildmaster. What was it you needed?” The guildmaster behind him walked back into his room.

“Oh, uhm, I’m in need of bandages. I’m bleeding.”

Chatot squinted and gave Gwen a once-over. In an amount of time one could describe as Way Too Long, he noticed her copious amounts of injuries. “Good gods, how are you still conscious enough to have walked in here?!” He turned and yelled up the ladder. “Chimecho! Get us some bandages!”

Gwen grinned. “Not a clue. I’m just awake.”

“It’s a miracle you are. You must be pretty resilient.” He hopped over to a bag lain against the wall behind him.

“I manage. I just can’t remember anything.”

Chatot reached down into the bag. “Oh my.” He pulled out a towelette and hopped back over to Gwen, sitting it down in front of her. "Get cleaned up. The bandages aren’t going to do you any good if they’re immediately soaked."

Gwen sat down and attempted to clean herself off. The towelette was way too small to get even half the blood off, though, and it was soaked in no time. “Thank you.”

“Of course, of course.”

Chimecho floated down the ladder and handed off a roll of bandages to Chatot. He gestured for Gwen to walk closer. She obliged. He quickly began wrapping around the open wound, and Gwen winced. He ignored her and wrapped some more, cutting the end off with his beak and folding it into place so it would stay. “There. That should keep the blood out of your eye.”

Brille stepped up to examine Chatot’s work. “It’s already pretty soaked… Is that gonna last very long?”

Gwen agreed. “Probably won’t… already feels soaked.” To make her point, she squished the bandage. “Ow.”

"Yes, yes, we’ll have to change it before too long. We have a vacant room here in the Guild, since a couple of our recruits graduated a while ago and we haven’t had anyone move in since. Would you be fine with staying the night?”

“I assume both of us would be fine with it.”

Brille nervously shuffled in place and stepped behind Gwen.

She turned to him. “If you don’t feel alright with it, we can go somewhere else.”

“I mean, I’m alright with it if you are…”

“You sure? You look nervous. I don’t want you to feel unsafe.”

“Really, it’s fine… I always look nervous.”

“Yeah, but you look more nervous than usual…”

"Well, I... What else am I gonna do?.. I don't have anywhere else to go. So yeah, I'm gonna have to be alright with it.”

“As long as there’s a place to snuggle, it’s home.”

“Uhm… Sure…”

Chatot piped up, only slightly annoyed. “ALRIGHT! Then it’s settled. You two do whatever you want and I’ll lead you to your room whenever you feel like it’s bed time or just want to be alone. And don’t cause any trouble, please.”

Chatot turned around and continued doing his own thing. Gwen and Brille approached one of the other guild members and pressed A to speak. “Oh my gosh! Are you two new recruits?”

Gwen looked at her confusedly.

“My name’s Sunflora! Oh my gosh! What happened to your head?!”

“I sort of woke up with it… no clue how I got it.”

"Oh my gosh! That sounds serious! Are you trying to join the Guild to find out what happened to you?”

“We’re not looking to join right now. I’m just trying to get my bearings.”

“Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!” Sunflora continued screaming and ran off.

Gwen stepped back. “...Okay.” She mumbled under her breath. “Crazy lady…”

Brille stood next to her. "Really. For a guild as famous and world-renowned as this one, I'd expect them to be a little more... serious.”

Chatot piped up from across the room. “Right?”

Gwen chuckled.

“I _try_ to get them to be serious. None of them will! So we just go with it at this point. Anyone who actually knows us knows we're still the top of our game, and anyone who doesn't still thinks we're a serious group. However, we do still have a reputation to uphold!”

Gwen murmured to Brille. “A bunch of oddballs, right?”

“They sure are an eccentric bunch…”

“Sleep time?”

“It’s really up to you. Whenever you feel like it.”

The two wandered through the Guild, exploring and seeing what there was to see, and made their way into a storage room filled to the brim with Perfect Apples. Gwen, being an amnesiac, picked one up and attempted to rip it in half to see what was so special about it.

Before she even got the chance to put much force into it, from across the guild, a deafening screech rang throughout the halls. The guildmaster busted into the room. “PERFECT APPLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLES!!!! WHO?!?!?!”

Gwen jumped. “Wha-- I just saw apples! I picked one up to look at it!”

“Oh! Okay! Friendly friend! I thought you were trying to steal my precious, lovely, delicious Perfect Apples! But where did your friend go?”

Gwen noticed that Brille had disappeared. “I think you scared him…”

“But… Why would he be scared?..”

“You _did_ make a ruckus… I didn’t mean any harm…”

Chatot flew in behind the guildmaster, attempting to comfort him. “No, no, Guildmaster, it’s alright! It’s okay! Your apples are safe!” He scooted around and angrily pointed to Gwen. “Get you and your friend _out_ of this room!”

Gwen frantically grabbed Brille by the tail and dragged him out of the room. The guildmaster watched, confusedly, as Chatot continued attempting to soothe his non-existent rage.

“Are you alright?”

Brille lay on the floor in a daze. “Am I alive?” He begun standing up.

“I mean…” Gwen patted him on the head, gently. “You’re still warm and talking, so I’m glad for that.”

Brille blushed. “Uhm… Thank you…”

Gwen sighed. “That’s enough shit for one day…”

“Ehehem… Maybe.”

“Let’s just go to our room.”

“Yeah… probably. We should let Chatot know first, though.”

Gwen turned to the side. “Oop, wait. I have to go do something. Pause time until I get back.”

Time paused. As time was paused, Gwen ruffled Brille’s fluff.

...

Time resumed.

Brille looked around, confused. “My fur feels… out of place.” In an attempt to get his mind off that, he led Gwen over to Chatot, informing him that it was bed time. Chatot dragged the two into a back room in the residence halls that had a sign with some names scratched out on it.

“It’s a bit old, but cozy enough, yes? I have to go get someone. I’ll be back before too long. Sit tight and wait for me, if you would.” He hopped out of the room down the hallway.

Brille slunk past Gwen and plopped down onto one of the hay beds. He shuffled around a bit, and looked out the window at the evening sky as the moon started to rise. “What a day…”

Gwen lay down on the other bed and stared up at the ceiling. “Agreed.”

“Well, I'm sure you've had a bit more of a day than I've had... You know, waking up severely injured with amnesia and all…”

“Yeah, but, I mean, you did find a bloodied and beat-up me just kinda randomly.”

“Yeah, but you _are_ that you. What do you even plan to do after this? Like, I'm sure it's scary not remembering anything... How do you plan for the future? Have you even had a chance to think about it with everything that's gone on?”

Gwen thought. “Not a clue. I guess I’ll roam around and see if someone knows who I am, and if I can’t remember, then I guess I’ll lead a new life or something like that.” She smiled at Brille. “I mean, hell, I already made a helpful and cute friend!”

Brille blushed. “Well… Okay.”

Chatot hopped back in through the threshold of the room. “Apologies for the wait. I’ve brought someone with me.”

The other Pokémon behind him waved. “Hello. I’m Drowzee.”

“Yes, Drowzee is here because he is a Psychic-type. We think he may be able to help with your amnesia situation by way of your dreams tonight.”

Gwen turned. “Oh! Uhm, thank you! Just tell me what I gotta do.”

Drowzee stepped forward. “Well, first, please try not to get your hopes too high. Not to say I won’t give it my best shot, but I’m not extremely confident I can help with amnesia.”

“Well, it’s always worth a shot.”

“That’s the spirit.”

Chatot hopped out of the room. “I’ll leave you three to this.”

Drowzee waved him off. “Like he mentioned, I can only get inside your head if you're asleep. So, either I can wait until you both fall asleep, or I can put you to sleep and get right to it. Which would you prefer?"

“Knock me out, my guy.”

"Alright, then. You, Zorua, feel free to fall asleep whenever you feel like it. I assure you I won't hurt your friend. ...Chatot would destroy me.”

Brille nodded. “Yeah, I’ll just… sleep here…” He shuffled a bit and curled up, facing the wall.

Gwen spoke back to him. “Good night, Brille.”

“Good night, and good luck.”

Drowzee stepped closer. “Are you alright with touch?”

“No problems here.”

He put both hands on the sides of Gwen’s head. Notably, right on her injury.

“Ow.”

“My apologies.” He loosened his grip. “Get ready.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cool! like i said at the beginning, the game is over. funny story about that! if you read the prologue before, you may have noticed the ??? | Nickit tag and the description of the player's fur as red. that was supposed to be my initial player's character. some stuff fell through and... long story short, the game ended up starting with a completely different person! so that tag got changed to ??? | Eevee, (and subsequently, after this chapter, to Gwen | Eevee). also we played basically nonstop for a whole month. so the game is over now! therefore, i don't have to rely on the game's schedule for uploads! it's entirely up to my own discretion, or whenever i find myself with sudden motivation
> 
> special thanks to stella, the player in this tabletop who plays gwen! she doesn't have an ao3 account or i'd add her as a co-creator but it's fine
> 
> also yes. this is heavily inspired by eos :)


	3. A Past's Resignation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An Eevee learns of her past, and a Zorua has to say goodbye. They meet some new friends, and at no point do any of them have any idea what they're getting themselves into.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this one's a little long. heheh. also i feel like it's mostly filler dialogue but who cares i'm transcribing the game itself. anyway big cw for alcohol in this chapter, more talk of blood and injury and such. also some angst. but there'll be more angst later! we meet some new friends, so stay tuned!
> 
> this one also took a billion years to come out, and future chapters will likely take the same amount of time! college classes start monday, and i'm a freshman, so it's my first year and i'm gonna be... quite stressed probably and won't have a lot of time for writing this--which i didn't even have much time for before! this one took a while because i was moving out, and then the next ones will probably be similar or longer due to college. so i hope you don't care too much, hypothetical non-existent reader!

※ **Drowzee** used **Hypnosis**!

Just as quickly as Gwen had fallen asleep, she found herself waking up again. Notably, in a different location from before. She found herself in a mossy, dark, damp cave--neither Drowzee nor Brille were anywhere to be seen. On one end, there was an exit leading into a bright white abyss, and on the other, a dark abyss that seemed to simply cut off. Quiet, prominent reverberations of drops of water from the ceiling resounded through the area at a low hum, and a yellow ball of light floated up to Gwen.

It spoke. “Good morning. This is Drowzee. You’re asleep. Congratulations! This is your memory. It’s space in your mind represented in a physical sense in your dream.” He floated over to a wall of the cave. “If I can direct your attention to this wall over here…” The wall had blurry, fuzzy writings on it--they seemed to wave back and forth as though being distorted light refractions on the surface of an unstable pool of water. They were very attention-grabbing. “There are a few loose memories I’ve managed to extract here for you to learn about. I’m going to see if I can’t investigate for the cause of this amnesia. Feel free to examine those.” He floated off.

Gwen ambled over to the text on the left. Upon an attempt to make out what it said, a deafening voice rang out in her ears. It screamed out, in a voice she couldn’t comprehend the nature of, but from the content of the speech could she understand: “I WAS HUMAN.”

Huh.

She checked the other one. It rang out in a similar fashion. “MY NAME WAS STELLA.”

Huh!

Gwen made her way out into the white abyss in an attempt to follow Drowzee. Upon spotting him, she found that he was preoccupied. She approached him. “Hey, I looked at them. Anything else to be done here?”

Drowzee offhandedly ignored Gwen, his mind clearly on a separate issue entirely. “Oh yeah? What’d you find out?”

“So, uhh, I was human, and my name was Stella.”

“Human, huh?.. That’s interesting…” He continued investigating and, upon realizing what he had just said, whipped back around to Gwen. Or, whipped around about as much as a floating ball of light can express. “H-- Human?! Is that what it said?!”

“Yep.”

Drowzee facepalmed, as much as a floating ball of light can facepalm. He ushered Gwen back into the main part of the cave. “I don’t know what you could’ve possibly gotten yourself involved in. I CAN give you a vague cuse for your amnesia, however. It IS partially injury-related. So whatever you hit your head on… gave you partial amnesia. A concussion, essentially. And another good chunk… is a deliberate memory lockdown of some sort. So it seems. I’ve only ever heard of things like this, but I've never seen one in practice…”

Gwen sneezed.

“Gesundheit.”

“Danke. So what does that mean?”

“It's like a deliberate way to, well, lock someone's memories behind a wall in their mind. They're still there, but inaccessible to the conscious mind. Typically memory lockdowns of this type are broken either naturally over time, or can be forcefully broken with something familiar enough, like a voice, a sound, a song, a scent, a sight, or something of that sort. But this one is... sloppy. Like whoever did it was inexperienced and in a hurry. Otherwise those two memories you saw wouldn't have been there.”

“So, yay. My mind is even more fucked than I thought.”

“My apologies. I'm going to continue to investigate. Keep in mind that these memories shouldn't be completely erased, just locked. At least to my knowledge. With how sloppy this memory is lockdown is, there might actually be some more damage…”

“So do I just chill in here, or what goes on?”

“You can do whatever you want. I'm going to continue to try to find what I can. You'll be waking up soon, anyway. If you don't remember your dream tomorrow morning, I'll fill you in.”

After what could be described as copious amounts of sleep, Gwen woke up. The sun shone in the room, nearly blinding her, and Brille's bed was notably empty. Looking to her left, she found him sitting in front of her under the windowsill, staring up out the window. His ear twitched, and he turned around and grinned at Gwen. “Good morning. You're a heavy sleeper, huh?”

“Hehe, I guess so!”

“How’d your, uh… ‘therapy session’ go?”

“So, my name used to be Stella.”

“Good start! Should I call you that from now on, or should I stick to Gwen?”

“Gwen is fine.”

“All right, then I don't have to get used to anything. Anything else?”

“I used to be a people.”

“...Huh?”

“Human.”

“Wha-- Human?! N-- No way! I thought humans were just a fairytale!”

Gwen looked to the side. “I guess not then..?”

“Well, I mean... I just don't see how that makes any sense. I don't see any reason _not_ to believe you.”

“Otherwise I don't really know anything else.”

“Didn't find out how you got amnesia?”

“I mean, something about a mental block.”

Before Brille got a chance to reply, the two heard a quiet knock on the sign by the entrance to the room. Drowzee stepped in. “Good morning. May I come in?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you remember your dream?”

“Ye.”

“So... I was correct about it being a memory lockdown. And I was correct about it being sloppy. But that's the issue... It was so sloppy that I was able to break right through it, but… there wasn't anything there. So either your injuries gave you total amnesia, even beyond the memory lockdown, or the Pokémon--or, for that matter, person--who memory locked you in the first place did it with little to no experience and the intention of wiping your memories entirely. That, or they set up a very elaborate ruse to make it _look_ like you still had your memories. That said... don't discount the possibility of it still being in your mind somewhere in your subconscious.” He turned to the side and grinned. “And I saw what you think about your friend. It was very prominent.”

Gwen jumped. “Eep!”

“I know you might assume someone is out to get you, but you don't know that anyone is, and you don't know that whoever might’ve been still is. They might’ve wiped your memory and assumed they were done with you. I don't know who you were before yesterday, but... If someone _is_ out to get you, I imagine the Guild will be right by your side.”

Gwen shuffled in mildly confused worry.

“I have one more piece of advice for you. Keep in mind that, though your memories can be erased, your instincts attached to those memories can't. Trust your instincts--they may tell you more than you’d think.” He turned around. “I’m heading out. I wish you luck.” He left.

“There you have it.”

“Yeah, I have it. It's a lot to have.” Brille sighed. “What are you gonna do with that information? I guess we didn't get as much as we were hoping for, right?”

“Not a clue. More questions than answers, really.”

“Do you wanna ask Chatot? He seems like the most knowledgeable one around here.”

“I guess.”

The two headed out of the room and down the hallway, reëntering the lobby. Chatot stood in his usual position, bouncing up and down in an idle, almost akin to an NPC awaiting player interaction. As such, Gwen walked up to him and pressed A on her hypothetical non-existent tabletop RPG controller.

“Good morning, you two. While you were asleep, while Drowzee was investigating, we changed your bandages. Kino, our expert healer, made the attempt to work with Drowzee’s Heal Pulse on your injuries, and managed to speed up the healing process. You’ll need a change of bandages this morning, and then by tonight it should be mostly healed and you’ll be good to take the bandages off. And, you and your friend can each have an apple for the road.” He sat two apples in front of Gwen as Brille came running in from the room behind her.

“Alright, thank you.”

“It’s no problem at all! I wish you two luck. And feel free to come back at anytime if you ever need any advice!” His dialogue ended, and he reset back into his idle animation.

Brille stepped up next to Gwen. “So… what do we do now?”

“Don’t you have your own things to attend to? You _did_ find me just kinda out of the blue. “

“Well, I--...” He paused. “My main goal is just staying alive to see another day. I have no aspirations, and no life to get back to. The only thing I want is to keep going, and even that I’m not good at. Either way, I want to try to help you. If I can.”

Gwen sighed and pulled Brille into a comforting hug. He jumped and shuffled frantically, blushing. “I, uh…” He sheepishly hugged her back. Upon letting go, he spoke. “I guess… If you ask me, I feel like the first order of business should be figuring out who you were before you got amnesia. You know, what sort of life you have to get back to. I don't think it would be very safe to go around telling folks you used to be human, though. “

“I guess so. Then, any ideas where to start first?”

Brille turned to Chatot, pulled out a controller, and pressed A. “Any ideas, Chatot?”

Chatot pondered for a moment. “I may have some sort of way to help you. One of our graduates here at the Guild is an amnesiac as well, just like you. With my knowledge of that and previous events surrounding that, I do believe your sudden appearance with amnesia could be linked to some… recent events.” He pondered again. “May I pose a question of my own?”

Gwen waved a paw in invitation. “Ask away.”

Chatot turned to Brille. The screen faded to black, and the graphics switched to cutscene graphics. The shading was suddenly 20x better. It was, like, pre-rendered and shit. Gwen spammed every button in an attempt to skip the cutscene, but it said “fuck you you can’t skip it [ _sic_ ].” Gwen attempted to access the pause menu just as Chatot began to speak.

“Wh-- **[PAUSE]**

> Resume

Quit

During the pause, Gwen ruffled everyone’s fur and feathers, and selected “resume.”

\--at will _you_ do until you two can find answers?”

Brille looked down. “Well, I… guess I’ll probably just have to go back to my life before I met Gwen.”

“And what would that be?”

Brille looked away.

Despite this being a pre-rendered cutscene, Gwen inserted her own dialogue. “Or he could stay with me. I mean, I don’t have much other than friendship and free hugs, but…”

Brille glanced over at her and continued looking away. He spoke quietly to Chatot. “Chatot. Thank you for giving me a place to sleep where I felt safe for the first time in my life. I’ll never forget the kindness the Guild has shown me.” He sprinted past Gwen and Chatot, up the ladder, and ran out of the guild, leaving the two behind in the dust.

The graphics switched back to in-game graphics, and Gwen got motion sickness from the swap back up to 60 FPS from 30. “Thank you so much for taking care of us. I’m gonna go after him, now.” Gwen nyoomed the fuck off [ _sic_ ] to follow him. She stepped outside of the Guild at the top of the staircase, rolled perception, and caught a glimpse of him at the bottom of the stairs walking along the main path of Treasure Town toward the cliff of Sharpedo Bluff. She ran to catch up with him.

Upon hearing Gwen running up behind him, Brille stopped in his tracks. Without turning around, he said, “I’m sorry. I don’t think you should keep following me.”

“I will anyway.”

“Really. I don’t think your best course of action would be to stay with me now.”

“You’ve shown me nothing but kindness. I can’t just leave it like that.”

“I’m sure you can.”

Gwen frowned. “But I won’t.”

Brille whipped around, angrily. “Look! I didn’t want to get used to living a halfway decent life, okay?! I didn’t want to get used to being okay, just to have that ripped away from me again and have to go back to living as a homeless thief! I didn’t want to get used to having you around--to having a _friend_ for once--just for something to go wrong and for us to split up!” Brille stepped back. “I don’t want to live a good life… I’m afraid I’ll lose it… And I’d rather stay the way I am now than know what it feels like to be happy and not have it. So… I’m going to have to say goodbye, okay? Sure, I want to help you. I _want_ to help lots of Pokémon. I want to _believe_ in Pokémon. I want to believe in _you_. And help you. And figure out why everything is happening the way it is. Y’know, do some good for once in my life. But I just can’t. I can’t do that. I’m weak, and I’m a coward.” Brille walked past Gwen. He stopped for a moment after passing her, and turned back to her. “And… do great things. Remember me when you’re saving the world. Okay?” He ran off.

Gwen sat for a moment in silence. She stood up and chased after him. Following his footprints on the road, she was led down the path to the beach, and she followed a long trail of prints leading into the cave on the end of the beach.

**Beach Cave B1F**

She explored around the floor, picking up various scattered items, such as an Oran Berry, and a red, fiery-looking seed, sticking them in the fluff around her neck. She made her way down to the next floor, fought a couple enemy Pokémon, yelling things like “HEY BITCH, WHERE THE FUCK IS MY ADORABLE FRIEND?!” and being obnoxious. She went down another floor, had a particularly infuriating battle with a Corsola, involving repeated use of Tail Whip and Harden back and forth, and committed a murder on said Corsola.

After some more maddening back-and-forth battles, she made her way down to **Beach Cave - Pit**. She found herself in a damp, dark room with sounds of water running. There were stalagmites (not stalactites--I googled it) coming from the floor in various places in the room, and in front of the large pond at the back of the pit sat Brille, staring at his reflection in the water. His ear twitched at the jingling of the items in Gwen’s fur, but he chose to ignore her. She calmly walked over at sat down next to him. He snrked and shook his head.

Gwen turned to his reflection in the water. “I came down here for you. You know?”

Brille scoffed. “Why?”

“Because I care.”

He stood up and walked away, turning back around to face Gwen. “You think I haven’t heard that before? ...I’m not accusing you of being untrustworthy. I’m saying I shouldn’t be with you. It won’t end well.”

Gwen stood up and took a step closer. “So? I’m fine with that. I just want you to feel safe and needed. If it wasn’t for you, I’d probably be dead!”

“Sure. I helped you. Maybe it was a fluke. You won’t want to try to help me. I can tell you that now.”

Gwen’s ears fell to the sides of her head. “I can still baselessly help you--even if there isn’t anything in it for me--”

“You can’t!” Brille snapped. “Everyone’s always the same! You won’t be able to stay with me, and you won’t want to! You’ll just find some reason to leave me, too! I’ll hold you back! I’ll get attached and you’ll _ditch_ me, just like _everyone else_!”

Gwen sniffed. “I don’t have anywhere else to go--where could I find a reason to leave you?! I want to _help_ you! I like you, y’know!”

Brille started to speak, but his voice caught in his throat. Tears welled up in his eyes. “How many times do you think I’ve heard that before, huh?! Pokémon lie! I can’t count the amount of times I’ve been lied to with that _exact_ sentiment! I. DON’T. NEED. YOUR. HELP!!”

Gwen ran forward and wordlessly hugged Brille. He pushed her away and jumped back, wiping his face off and clearing his throat. “Then I’ll just have to change your mind myself.”

_You are challenged by_ **_Brille_** _!_

Brille jumped forward in an attack, and Gwen jumped to the side, resorting to her new strategy, and using Tail Whip. They continued this for a bit, with Brille repeatedly scratching and throwing himself at Gwen and her jumping out of the way and slapping him with her tail. A few of Brille’s scratches hit--drawing blood on Gwen and tearing her bandages. After Gwen felt Brille’s defense was sufficiently lowered, she decided to try one of the seeds she found. She pulled out the fiery one, stuck it in her mouth, and bit down. As soon as she sank her fang down into its shell, it burst, forcing her mouth open as the seed launched a flaming explosion directly from her snout. It engulfed Brille, knocking him back and slamming him into the wall on the other side of the cave pit. He fell down and plopped onto the ground, bloodied.

Gwen was taken aback with pure horror. “What the fuuuuuuck…” She sprinted over to him and frantically offered him the Oran Berry she found. He weakly pushed himself up and accepted the berry, shakily. He meekly took a bite, and struggled to speak, tears in his eyes once again. “ I--... I’m sorry…”

Gwen hugged him… again. This time, he hugged back immediately with full force. Gwen held back her own tears. “I-- I thought I did worse…”

Brille squeezed harder. “I’m so sorry! I never wanted to hurt you… I never wanted to hurt anyone! I’ll… I’ll do anything for you to take me with you… I can’t bare to be alone like that again!.. I don’t care where you go, just please… I want to help you…”

Gwen pulled back and pat Brille on the head. “For now, let’s go get you bandaged up… I had no clue that would happen…”

Brille stood up, sniffed, and nodded. “Thank you for… not giving up on me.” He gave Gwen a smile, with tears still in his eyes. “And that Blast Seed as a pretty cool move, too.” He wiped his face off. “Before we get out of here…” He ran across the room and shuffled around with some rocks behind a stalagmite. Gwen followed him over. From under the rocks behind the stalagmite, he dug out two torn-up, raggedy, yellow pieces of cloth with wavy reddish-brown patterns on them. He turned around and sat both of them on the ground, offering one to Gwen. “I’ve had these scarves for as long as I can remember.” He smiled. “I… want you to have one!”

Gwen gave him a teary-eyed smile, and they both tied them around their necks as scarves.

Brille scratched the back of his head. “We can replace them with more… functional… scarves later. If you want. I just… wanted you to have one. To show my appreciation!”

“I love it!” Gwen tightened the scarf, and all the items fell out of her neck-fluff. “Whoops. To the tail floof you go!”

Brille shuffled. “...You, uh… wanted to go back to the Guild?”

“Yeah, I do need to get my bandages replaced.”

“Heh, yeah… I may have scratched them up a bit. Sorry about that.”

The two made their way out of the dungeon and back up to the Guild. They, once again, approached Chatot. “Welcome back. I see you two are back together. I never did bother to learn your names, did I? Chimecho! Bandage replacement!”

Chimecho floated down, handed off some bandages, and floated off. Chatot changed Gwen’s, gave Brille some, and everyone was cool. “Remember what I mentioned before you left earlier? I think I know the perfect team to help you two with your situation.”

“Ooh?”

“Yes, they’re out on the job right now, but when they have time, I can let them know you’re looking for them. Does that work for you two?”

“Yeah, sounds fine to me. Brille?”

“Yeah, that sounds cool! What ‘til then?”

“Wanna walk around town or something?”

Chatot chimed in. “I can recommend Spinda’s Café! It’s a wonderful little spot. I do believe you, Zorua, would love something made from Black Gummis. And you, Eevee, should try something made from White Gummis.”

“Sounds like a plan!”

Brille piped up. “I don’t have any money…”

“Oh, no! You don’t need money! Nothing in the Café costs anything--all you need is ingredients to make the drink and Spinda can whip it up. Some of them can even Boost Your Stats™️®©. It's really wonderful stuff. Plus, they have the Recycle Shop, where you can trade things for other things and participate in the prize ticket rally, if you're up for trying your luck.”

“That sounds awesome…” Gwen commented.

“Who should we be looking for in there?”

“You’ll be looking for Team Eclipse. I’ll let them know you’re at the Café when next I see them.”

Gwen nodded. “Understood!” She gestured for Brille to follow, and they made their way out of the Guild, and down the stairs. A sign next to a hole in the ground caught Gwen’s eye, and she led Brille over to it. The sign read “Spinda’s Café,” but it seemed to just be a hole in the ground with stairs going down in it. Before Gwen could hesitate any more about it, she tripped over a rock at the top of the stairs and tumbled down, slamming her face on the wooden floor at the bottom and getting a bloody nose. Brille frantically followed her down, and she quickly stood up, pretending as though nothing happened. She walked over to the counter on the left, and was greeted by the barista.

“Welcome to the fresh and friendly Spinda’s Juice Bar! You two new here?”

“Uhh, yeah!”

“Well, then, I’m Spinda, and welcome to my Juice Bar! Give me an ingredient and I will use it to make a wonderful, delicious drink for you. I can make juice, broth, shakes, smoothies, drinkable berries, purées, teas, ciders, and more! Please refresh yourself with a delicious drink and allow the flower of conversation to bloom. And before you ask, yes, we can make alcoholic drinks.”

Brille hopped up and sat a white gummi and a black gummi on the counter. “What can you make with these?”

“Anything you like! Shall I use these to make drinks for the both of you?”

“Sure! Ingredients are on me!”

“What kind of drinks will you both have?”

Gwen gestured to Brille. “I’ll let him pick for me.”

Brille thought. “I’ll have a smoothie, and… Well, what do you like?”

“Tea, please.”

“So I've got a Black Gummi Smoothie for the Zorua and a White Gummi Tea for the Eevee. Is that right?”

“Yep!”

“Great! Feel free to have a seat while I get these made and I'll have them right out to you. The smoothie may take a bit longer to make, though!”

Brille spun around and looked to Gwen, gesturing to the table closest to the bar, in an “I-guess-we-should-sit-here” sort of way. They both grab seats, notably at a table that already has one seat occupied. The Pokémon already sitting there was a Glaceon wearing a yellow scarf with an Ace-Rank Rescue Team badge pinned to it. He took notice of them, sipped his tea, and spoke up. “Hey there. You two new around here?”

“Oh, uhm, yes,” Gwen answered.

“I just don’t talk much,” Brille commented.

The Glaceon squinted at Gwen. “You seem… so familiar. Have I met you before, or..?”

“I’m… not quite sure if you have or haven’t.”

“Guess not. Just a… weird hunch, I guess.” He sipped his tea and dramatically slammed it down on the table. Gwen jumped. “Hmph. Okay then.” He stood up from the table. “Prove yourself.” He pulled off his scarf and sat it on the table. “Prove to me you’ve got what it takes to survive, even with your injuries!”

_You are challenged by_ **_???_ ** _!_

“Show me what you can do.”

Gwen started, “What the fuck--” but was cut off by the Glaceon running over, grabbing her in his mouth by the neck fluff, and throwing her to the other side of the Café. Brille ran over next to her, and the Glaceon used Ice Shard, launching shrapnels of ice at Gwen. She managed to dodge out of the way of most of them, but was hit on the head with the side of one, and had another stab her directly and lodge itself in her shoulder. She stumbled, wincing and grabbing her shoulder. She looked over at the Glaceon and, without breaking eye contact, ripped the shard from her shoulder, pulled out a Blast Seed, and used the force from the seed to launch the shard back at the Glaceon.

“Holy shi--” He was cut off by the shard slamming him in the face and shattering over him, and he flipped backwards and slammed into the counter at the back of the Café. “...Holy shit.” He pulled himself off and stood up, shaking his head. Spinda quietly sat the two's drinks on their table. He gestured to it, and went to go sit back down. “That was…”

Gwen sat down across from him. “You good? I hit you pretty hard.”

He sat down, reaching for his scarf. “Some of the coolest strats I've seen in my LIFE. I'm using 'epic' unironically when I tell you that that was incredibly epic.”

“Thank you!”

Brille sat down in front of his drink and lightly slammed the table. “ _What_ was that for?!”

The Glaceon tied his scarf back around his neck. “Well soooo-rry! I'm supposed to be the looks-like-an-antagonist-at-first-but-actually-was-just-testing-you NPC.”

Gwen and Brille looked at each other, and back at the Glaceon. “...Huh?”

“Whuh?”

The Glaceon frowned. “Cool.” He leaned back. “But anyway. You're unbelievably cool. Whatever you're doing--I want in.”

“Hey, what’s your name?”

“Mmh, haven’t properly introduced myself, huh? Could ask for your names first, though, couldn’t I?”

“I’m Gwen, and this shy boy is Brille.”

The Glaceon pretended to tip a hat. “Fine ta meet’cha! My name’s Rou and, well, I’m pretty gay.”

Gwen side-eyed him and sneakily rolled some dice. She looked at the numbers and swore under her breath.

Rou squinted at her. “Are you trying to seduce me?”

Uhh. Perhaps. “What?”

“Did I not make it clear enough with the ‘I’m gay’? I can say it again if you need me to.” He cleared his throat. “I'm gay. I'm gay. I'm gay. I'm gay. I'm gay. This is enjoyable.”

Gwen will get a NAT 20 at some point! Mark her words!

Rou smirked. “Not a chance, kid. So, you two. Up to anything interesting lately? Seems like someone as cool as you would be up to something.”

“We were waiting for someone.”

“Oh yeah?”

Gwen sipped her drink. As everyone rolled tastiness checks on their drinks, Rou slammed down his cup and yelled. “I FEEL AS THOUGH I AM HAVING A TRANSCENDENT EXPERIENCE DUE TO THIS TEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

The Café fell silent. Rou looked around. “…Anyway. Enlightening tea aside… Who’re you waiting for?” He sipped his tea slowly as to savor it more.

“Team Eclipse.”

“Aaah, yeah. They’ll help, alright.” Tea sip.

Brille piped up. “Do you know them?”

“They’re pretty famous. Don’t you know ‘em? But yeah, I knew one of the members personally. We were friends a while back.”

Gwen tipped her cup. “Hey, that’s cool.”

“Knew? Were? Past tense?”

“We haven’t seen each other in a while.” Tea sip.

“Can you tell us about ‘em? Before we meet ‘em, and all.”

“I only really know about the one of them that I’ve met. I don’t know anything about the other member.” Tea sip.

“Well, what about them?”

“Best if you just meet them yourself.”

Brille sipped his smoothie. “This smoothie is, like, a five out of 20.”

Gwen held up her cup. “Should’ve gone with the tea, my boy.”

“Maybe I should’ve. Rou seems to be enjoying it.” He turned back to Rou. “So why can’t you tell us about them?”

Rou sipped his tea and gestured behind himself to the left. Behind him, a Shinx wearing a purple scarf with an exploration team pin attached walked up to the table. Gwen waved. “Hi, how are ya’.”

The Shinx turned to her. “Hi there! I’m looking for a client. Chatot sent me. Are you that client?”

“Yep! May I ask your name?”

“Caesar of Team Eclipse, at your service!” He smiled and flashed his badge at Gwen. He turned to Rou. “You with them?”

“Am now. Name’s Rou.”

“Pleased to meet you all!” He turned back to Gwen.

“I’m Gwen! The small quiet one is Brille.”

“Wonderful, Gwen. Now, Chatot told me a little bit, but said I’d be better off hearing it from you. What can we help you with?”

Brille whispered to Gwen. “So… should we just start out saying you-know-what?”

“Yeah, why not?” Gwen leaned on the table. “So, uh, I dunno how to say this lightly, but I have amnesia… aaaaaaannnnnnd I used to be a human… That’s almost all I remember.”

Caesar jumped as his expression shifted from surprise to “ugh” in the span of seconds. He rubbed his snout. “Uuuughh…”

“Uhhh, I broke him.”

“No, I’m not broken.” He looked up. “Ugh. I believe you.” He leaned back in his chair and sighed before leaning back forward with his elbows on the table. “Yeah. Yeah. Lemme guess. You washed up on the beach, unconscious? Just recently? No memories, used to be human?”

“I think Brille would be best for describing that.”

Brille thought. “Essentially, yeah… I found her washed up on the beach and dragged her back to shelter, and she told me she didn’t remember how she got there.”

“Sweet Kyogre… You two were the ones who left a trail of blood in my house yesterday, weren’t you?”

Brille tensed up and looked at Gwen. She frowned. “O-- Oh…”

Caesar sighed. “Don’t worry, I’m not mad. I just… don’t know how I’m supposed to feel about the information you’ve given me. Just wait until my partner hears about this… So lemme get this straight. You used to be human, you have amnesia, you’re homeless. Rou is… with you? He said he ‘is now’ but I’ve got no clue what that means.”

“I think he adopted us or something.”

Rou sipped his tea. “I could. They could live with me if they wanted to.”

“I mean, I’m fine with it as long as I’m not a nuisance to you and if Brille is okay with it.”

“I mean, yeah, it’ll be fine. I’m part of a rescue team called Team Shimmer. Follow me on Twitter @rouisgay.”

Caesar input, “I was just about to offer them a job with us at Team Eclipse. Would you two prefer to work for us and live with him? I'm sure he has more space than we do.”

“I’m fine with that.”

Rou sipped his tea. “Cool beans. We’ve got an extra room, so I’m sure you’d fit right in.”

Gwen paused time, ruffled everyone’s fur, and booped [sic] all of them. Time resumed, and Rou’s phone vibrated. He checked his Twitter DMs, and had received one from Gwen. While she was still maintaining eye contact, he continued receiving DMs. “How are you doing that??”

“@rouisgay.”

“Where’d you get a phone???” He looked back down at his screen and back up at Gwen. He searched under the table for any sign of a hidden phone and didn’t find anything. “You baffle me.”

“The floof knows all.”

“I like that. I like you.”

Gwen’s tail rustled. Brille straightened out his neck fluff. “Does anyone else’s fur feel messed up?”

Caesar shrugged. “You get used to it.”

Gwen said, “I feel fine.”

Rou scoffed. “Yeah, guys, she feels fine. She feels fine. Arceus, you’re so cool.”

Gwen pretended to grab the brim of her non-existent hat. “Yare yare.”

Rou slammed the table. “WAS THAT A JOJO REFERENCE?!”

Gwen looked at him innocently. “A what?”

“…I’ve got my eye on you.” Rou’s phone vibrated. He checked it, and scowled at Gwen across the table. Gwen smiled at him innocently. Rou smirked. 「今から三日お前は亡くなる。」

“Fuckin’ bet.”

「どう分かった？！」

“Durch das Brechen der vierten Wand!”

「ドイツ語話せねぇぇぇぇぇーー！！！！！」

Caesar commented, “What is happening.”

Brille agreed. “You tell me…”

Rou and Gwen yelled simultaneously. 「お前たちがこの会話にいない！！」

“Du bist kein Teil davon!”

Brille and Caesar stared in mildly horrified awe.

From the entrance of the Café, a Vulpix walked in, looked around, and ran over to Caesar. She had the same badge pinned to her bow as Caesar.

Gwen greeted her similarly. “Hi, how are ya’.”

She began to speak, and cut herself off. “What’s up gamers--” She noticed Rou. “Oh, hey Rou! Long time no see!”

Caesar and Rou spoke simultaneously. “Hey, Melody!” Caesar turned back to Rou and they looked to each other, speaking simultaneously again. “You know her?”

Caesar stepped back next to the Vulpix. They spoke simultaneously. “She’s my girlfriend!”

“He’s my boyfriend!”

Rou was taken aback. “Boyfriend?! Mmh…”

Melody stepped forward. “Is there an issue?”

“No, I just didn’t think you’d ever be one to end up with a _boyfriend_ …” Rou smirked.

“Fuck you.”

Caesar butted in. “Well, hi.”

“So, uh… Can I get some deets about why the fuck we’re here?”

“You’ll love this. That Eevee over there? Her name’s Gwen. You know what’s funny about Gwen?”

“Please tell me Caesar what is so funny about this Eevee named Gwen.”

“She says she’s! A former human! Hah! Hahahah!” Caesar’s laughter slowly drifted more and more crazy. “Hahahahah! Hahahahahaahaaahahahahahah! Isn’t that funny? Isn’t that FUNNY?!”

Melody laughed too. “Heheheheh! FUCK! There’re more of you fuckers?!”

Gwen interjected. “What the fuck.”

“This sucks. This is grody. This is _so_ not Lo-Fi Hip Hop Beats to Chill and Study to. This is NOT very CASH MONEY OF YOU!!!”

“Uhh, what?”

“I know you know what the fuck I'm saying. Just because you're an amnesiac doesn't mean you've forgotten every meme phrase in the dictionary.” Melody sighed. “Ugh.”

“Yare yare.”

Melody and Rou screamed simultaneously. “YOU FUCKER!!”

Gwen snrked.

“Would I be incorrect to say you washed up on the beach with no memories and were discovered by your little Zorua friend there and have now gone on a series of shenanigans involving the Guild together, and have not yet learned your connection to the state of the world?”

“Yeah, pretty much, except I was bloodied and beat up.”

“Dear _fucking_ Ho-Oh. Hey everyone! Who wants drinks?! Who wants fucking drinks?! Drinks are on me!! Hey everyone, who wants FUCKING DRINKS?!”

Caesar responded quickly with no pauses. “Yes drinks sound good thank you I will have the usual you need something to calm you down.”

Gwen sat in silence.

“Does the Zorua and the Fucking Human™ want anything???”

“No, I… think I’m fine for now.”

“Cool! Wonderful! Amazing!” She stomped over to the counter.

Caesar sighed. “I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s ordering something alcoholic…”

Gwen looked to the rest of the table confusedly. Rou scrunched up his face. “Yeah, I dunno what her problem is.”

“We just have a pretty good idea of what to expect knowing that Gwen used to be a human. We can connect it pretty easily to current events and our past knowledge, and... it's not good, to be frank,” Caesar explained.

Melody stomped back over and sat down next to Caesar, faceplanting on the table.

Caesar attempted to take her mind off the situation. “So, um… Melody! How did the radio show go?”

Melody sat back up and sighed. “Uh, it was neat, I guess. It should be airing here soon if y’all want to hear it. I bet Spinda could change the station.”

Gwen gestured to Spinda, and the radio station on the intercom was changed to PokéRadio. A song was still playing.

“Guess it’s not on yet.”

As it began playing and Melody was giving her behind-the-scenes commentary, Gwen nudged Rou.

“Mmh?”

“Check yer phone.”

They texted for a bit, and the show ended.

Caesar commented, “Did you… attack Wayne Merlin on his own radio show?”

Melody nodded. “Sure did. He started it.”

Gwen spoke up. “I like you already, just for that radio talk show.”

Spinda sat Caesar and Melody’s drinks on the table. “Gaming. Thanks, Spinda.” Melody took a sip, and rolled a 1 on her tastiness check. She immediately choked, coughing all over the place and spewing ashes out of her mouth all over the floor. “It’s Wayne’s fault!”

Gwen expressed concern. “You, uhh, okay there?”

“I’m fine. Ugh. I appreciate that you think highly of me for attacking a radio show host on his own radio show.”

Rou piped up. “I don’t.”

“Don’t care didn’t ask also you’re an ice-type.” She took another big gulp of her drink. “Arceus in the Tree of Life…”

Caesar frowned. “Why do you keep drinking that?”

“Want. Not letting that gummi go to waste. Need something to calm me down.”

Rou commented, “You can get more gummis.”

“Anything is edible if you’re not a coward.”

“That's code for 'one time I ate purple sludge I found in a dungeon and complained to my boyfriend when it made me sick,'” Caesar interjected.

“My statement still stands.”

Gwen grinned. “I mean, I ate a Blast Seed thinking it did something else.”

“And you are not a coward.”

“Should we really be encouraging this behavior?”

Melody took another huge gulp of her drink. “I’ll encourage what I _want_ to encourage! Hope you’ve still got some of that gummi left over, Spinda, cuz I’m gonna need another round. Stronger this time!”

“I told you…” Caesar sighed.

Gwen yelled, “Booze!”

“You want some, shortie? I can gitcha some.”

“I’m down.”

Rou smirked. “Get me some.”

“SPINDA!! MAKE THAT TWO MORE.”

Spinda waved their arms. “Boo0o0ooo0oo0o0o0o0o0oze!”

Caesar tsked. “Well… I _have_ to join in, too, don’t I?”

“That’s the fuckin’ spirit! You heard the man, Spinda!”

“Loud ‘n’ clear. You four are gonna be feelin’ these. Zorua want any?”

Brille shuffled. “Ehm… I’ll pass.”

Rou shrugged. “Your loss.”

Gwen rolled some dice, getting an 8 on her persuasion roll.

“I’m not getting drunk, Gwen.”

Rou waggled a finger. “You shouldn’t engage in peer pressure, kids!”

Gwen sighed. “Worth a shot.”

Brille rolled his eyes. “Yeah. No.”

“Oh well.”

“I just wanna see a drunk Caesar. I can’t _imagine_ someone like him being drunk.” Rou snickered.

Melody smiled. “He’s fuckin’ adorablllllle. I love him.”

Caesar smiled back. “Eheh, I love you too.”

“NEEDS MORE GAY!”

“Fahck off, bitch!”

“Next thing you know I’ll have to listen to you calling each other ‘my love.’”

“You do that with _your_ boyfriend.”

“I’m gay, so it’s allowed.”

Caesar tilted his head. “We don’t really _do_ pet names.”

“Oh yeah? What do Beedrill make?”

“Honey?”

Melody piped up. “Yes, my love?”

Rou held out an arm. “Huh?”

Caesar stammered. “That proves nothing.”

“This is so sad. Can we get fifteen trillion likes on this video?”

“BITCH!!”

“He turned himself into a pickle, Melody. Funniest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”

“Rou! Say shit!”

“Funniest shit I’ve ever seen in my life.”

Spinda handed out everyone’s drinks. Rou responded, “Tom Nook voice thanks much.”

Gwen rolled a 5 on her tastiness check. “Eh. It’s free booze, though.”

Rou held up his drink to his snout. “That doesn’t bode well.” He sampled it, rolling a 10 on his tastiness check. “It’s not _that_ bad.”

Caesar holds his up for a sip. “Is it really that bad?” He rolled a 3. “Eugh…”

Melody held up her own. “Buncha fuckin’ cowards.” She took a huge chug, gulped it down, and turned to the side to spew fire all over the floor. “Euheheheuuugh…”

Gwen piped up. "You know all that Pokemon needs to know is change up the story a bit like what about instead of Pokémon it was only dragons and instead of being a 10 year old boy or girl you are a elf or human ranging from teen to elderly. the player could also fight like a dragon in order to tame them just like Pokémon. It could start off in a cart being wheeled by horse into a city we could call it. Pokémon Gen 9 The Elder Scrolls Skyrim." [ _sic_ ]

Rou took a huge swig of his drink. “I wish I didn’t hear that.”

Melody swished her cup at Gwen. “That’s the spirit, girlie! Spinda! ‘Nother round for Gwen!” She took another chug and coughed up ashes everywhere.

Gwen sat down her cup. “Yesh please.”

Brille rolled his eyes again. “This is gonna be a loooong night.”

Rou scoffed. “Y’all’re a buncha lightweights.”

Melody chugged the rest of her drink, coughed, and yelled to Spinda for another one. “This sucks.”

“Booze!”

“BOOZE!”

“Booze.”

Brille attempted to think of conversation topics. “Uh, Melody, what’s your favorite color?”

“Caesar.”

“What?”

“Whuh wuzzuh quesshin?”

“Caesar, what’s _your_ favorite color?”

“Melody.”

“Waht?”

“Okay.”

Gwen nudged Brille. “Whas yours?”

“It might be basic to pick my own accent color, but I’d have to go with red.”

Melody slammed the table. “THAH BESS COLOR IS CAESAR!!”

Caesar grinned. “I appreciate that you feel that way!”

Gwen yelled, “PIIIIIINK!”

メロディーは「ピンク色！」と言った。

Gwen uwaa’d.

Rou began yelling. “How many shrimps do you have to eat! Before you make your skin turn pink!”

Melody joined in. “EAT TOO MUSH AND YU’LL GET SICK!”

Gwen joined, and the three yelled simultaneously. “SHRIMPS ARE PRETTY RICH!!”

Brille turned to Caesar. “Are they always like this?”

“Dunno, but it seems fun.” He chugged the rest of his drink. “That’s gross…”

“SPINDA! YOU KNOW WHAT TAH DEW!”

“I hope the next one is better…”

Spinda brought out the next round and went back to start making Caesar’s. Gwen downed hers in one gulp.

“Make it two, Spinda.”

“That was okies.”

“Epic gamer moment.” Melody paused and looked down. “This gross drink is making me sad. Caesar, can you do the thing?”

“What thing?”

“The thing that makes me happy.”

“Oh!” Caesar smiled.

“Thank you…”

Rou’s phone vibrated. Gwen looked over at him.

“Someone’s gotta keep an eye on this Eevee.”

“uwu”

“Mmmmmmmph.” Rou pounded the rest of his drink.

“THREE!”

Rou stared at Gwen intently, and she pulled out her phone and typed furiously. “THAT! Where did you get that?!” She shoved it back into her tail, and Spinda brought out the next round. Gwen finished hers in two gulps. “It’sh otays.”

Caesar took a testing sip. “Eeeehhhhh…”

Rou took a big gulp. “Ugh!”

Melody held up her drink. “Gwen hath inthpired me. Cheerth!” She clinked drinks with Rou and Caesar, and they all downed them at once, all making faces of disgust. “Spijnnda. G”

Spinda waved their arms. “G!”

Caesar yelled along. “Geeeeeh! G!!”

Rou smirked. “Buncha lightweights.”

“I’s stiwwl guud,” [ _sic_ ] Gwen commented.

Brille sighed. “Why do you do this to yourselves?”

“ **B O O Z E** ”

Caesar inhaled. “I like to ekshperienshe new emoshuns ‘at I can’t usually!”

Melody yelled. “I EXPERIENCE EMOTIONS TOO!!!!” She got teary-eyed. “Sometimes it’s _not_ fun…”

Gwen giggled and patted her. She faceplanted on the table, making a droning sound. Caesar gasped. “Melody! Are you okhay????”

She continued droning. Gwen somehow said [this gif](https://media.tenor.co/videos/f249e4bd53e8c859b3ada83e7c471ee2/mp4) out loud.

Rou frowned. “I don’t like that E because on account of I think you’re so sucks.”

Caesar looked down. “That’z not zo naaaiiiiize…”

“Adowabwe!” Gwen sputtered.

“SO SUCKS!!” Melody yelled as the next round came in. Gwen’s was gone in half a second. She got progressively cuter the more she drank. Melody grumbled. “I swear, I _love_ your style!!!” She chugged hers, rolling a 10 tastiness check. “THIS IS ADEQUATE!!”

Caesar threw it back, rolling an 11. “It’s _so_ adequate!”

Rou stared his own down intensely, trying to center his vision and hide the fact of how drunk he actually was, and took a big swig, rolling an 18. “THIS IS GOOD?!??!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!??!?!? ❓❓❓”

Gwen said a “this” emoji out loud.

“NO!!!!”

“sosig”

“Is it really that good?” Brille asked.

“You wunna try it li’l man?”

“Uh… I guess…” Rou let Brille have a sip of his drink. He raised his brow in surprise. “Wow, that _is_ pretty good!”

“Lucky asses!”

Gwen turned to Brille. “u awe so adowabwe, me mean da epitome of adowabwe” [ _sic_ ]

Brille blushed. “Ehm…”

Gwen hugged him. He blushed harder. “Okay! Okay!” He lightly patted her back and not-so-subtly pushed her away and sat her back in place. “Please warn me before you do that.”

“Otays!”

Melody downed the rest of her drink and faceplanted on the table again. Caesar gasped. “Melody my girlfriend Melody!” He pounded the rest of his. “Urp… Oh gods…” He collapsed next to her.

“G!!!”

“G.”

Caesar slid off the table and knocked Melody down with him, and they both slid down off their chairs and fell onto the floor. Rou looked down at them. “LIGHTWEIGHTS, I TELL YOU!! LIGHTWEIGHTS!!” He chugged the rest of his drink. “YOU CAN’T _HANDLE_ THIS! YOU CAN’T _HANDLE_ ME! Blurgh…”

“WHANNA BET?” Gwen pushed herself up the table.

“You think so, kid? Kiddo? Kidderino? Kid? KID?! I’M TOO GAY FOR YOU TO HANDLE!!!! WHERE’S MY BOYFRIEND SO I CAN KISS HIM?!”

Gwen rolled another seduction check. Rou’s eyes became rainbows. “You cannot seduce me.” His scarf became rainbow-patterned. “No matter how hard you may think you can try.” The air around him became engulfed in rainbows. “ Y o u a r e u n a b l e . ”

“I will one day. One last roll.”

Rou said the “B” emoji out loud. Gwen replied with the “E” emoji.

“TWIDDER!”

Spinda brought out another round for the two. Gwen chugged half of hers. “IT’S SHIT!”

“YOU THINK YOU CAN HANDLE MORE THAN ME, BUSTER???” He downed his all at once and screamed. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!”

Gwen downed the rest of hers.

Rou turned to the side. “I’m okay.” He fell out of his chair and onto the floor. “Done. Done. I'm done. I'm out. E. 3. 14. Tree. Llllllllllllllllllllllllllll…” He blacked out while saying “L.”

Gwen cheered. “LAST ‘MON STANDING!!!!” She fell over onto Brille, knocking them both onto the floor, and uwaa’d at him before blacking out herself.

Brille lay under Gwen. She unconsciously held onto his leg. “Just a bunch of floor friends. Just some floor fiends lying on the floor.”

He tried to stand up, but was unable due to the Gwen attached to his leg. “Spinda?”

“Yessum?”

“We got a floor polycule. Should I remove them from the premises?”

“That’d be just lovely!”

Brille turned back to stare over the mess of Pokémon lying on the floor. “How am I gonna get you all out of here.” He pondered for a moment. “Hey, Spinda? Do you, uh. Mind if we sleep in here tonight?”

“'Course. They've done it before. Just be out of here before opening tomorrow.”

“Thanks so much. And sorry to impose like this.”

“Quite alright.”

Brille curled up on the ground next to Gwen, attempting to pry her off his leg. “Like I said. Long night…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so new friends! to clarify if it wasn't clear: team eclipse is the protagonist team of pmd sky in this canon--melody is the hero, and caesar is the partner. rou is the canon hero of rescue team, but in this canon he is not a former human. also some things about canon got changed, but if you aren't familiar with rescue team's story it won't matter to you! if you are, it'll be explained later! so, yes, melody *is* a former human. rou is not. gwen is also. cool? cool.
> 
> fun fact: spinda, in my canon, uses any pronouns because i've never been able to find anyone in any of the canon material refer to them with a pronoun??? so in the text i'll use they / them though gwen exclusively refers to them with she / her. just a little quirk i suppose


End file.
